The Project Gutenberg EBook of Practical Ethics, by William DeWitt Hyde

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Title: Practical Ethics

Author: William DeWitt Hyde

Release Date: January 20, 2008 [EBook #24372]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PRACTICAL ETHICS ***

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Transcriber's Notes: Text in italics in the original is surrounded by
_underscores_. Text in bold in the original is surrounded by +plus
signs+. A complete set of corrections follows the text.

PRACTICAL ETHICS

BY

WILLIAM DEWITT HYDE, D. D.
_President of Bowdoin College_

NEW YORK
HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY

COPYRIGHT, 1892,
BY
HENRY HOLT & CO.

THE MERSHON COMPANY PRESS,
RAHWAY, N. J.

PREFACE.

The steady stream of works on ethics during the last ten years, rising
almost to a torrent within the past few months, renders it necessary for
even the tiniest rill to justify its slender contribution to the already
swollen flood.

On the one hand treatises abound which are exhaustive in their
presentation of ethical theory. On the other hand books are plenty which
give good moral advice with great elaborateness of detail. Each type of
work has its place and function. The one is excellent mental gymnastic
for the mature; the other admirable emotional pabulum for the childish
mind. Neither, however, is adapted both to satisfy the intellect and
quicken the conscience at that critical period when the youth has put
away childish things and is reaching out after manly and womanly ideals.

The book which shall meet this want must have theory; yet the theory
must not be made obtrusive, nor stated too abstractly. The theory must
be deeply imbedded in the structure of the work; and must commend
itself, not by metaphysical deduction from first principles, but by its
ability to comprehend in a rational and intelligible order the concrete
facts with which conduct has to do.

Such a book must be direct and practical. It must contain clear-cut
presentation of duties to be done, virtues to be cultivated, temptations
to be